Home for the Holidays

The cold nipped at her exposed skin, nose and cheeks a bright red, turning her into a fairytale story - Cheeks were like roses, nose like a cherry. Still, the young girl didn't move. She didn't make a move to go back where she came from - where she was always welcome -nor did she step forward.

The house was a light with bright warm colours. Christmas lights flashing merrily, even though the holiday was passed. It was all so familiar to her, and yet there were slight changes. Wear from a couple more years use that she had missed, and the wreath that hung on the door was new. She wondered when they had gotten that.

It all look so welcoming.

Yet she couldn't bring herself to step forward. She couldn't bring herself to do what she had come here to do. Knock on the door, visit, talk to her family.

It was petty; she hardly even knew what the problem was. They'd be there, Zach would be extatic, her mother would be happy too, though she'd try to compose herself, not to show it. But even with that it would be too...

Things were different now. Thats why she left. She could handle seeing Zach from time to time - she still missed him horribly - at a place away from home, but she couldn't...

She couldn't go home. Cause it wasn't her home, not really. Not anymore.

And she couldn't intrude. Not unnannounced, possibly not ever.

Shaking her head, Juliet allowed her hair to fall into her face once more, and she turned on her heals, walking away, the only sign that she had ever been there at all were the trail of foot prints she left behind.